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Indies and consoles: an imperfect system
According to Gamasutra's Simon Carless, the independent scene is facing an uphill battle when developing for consoles, specifically in the realm of digital distribution. Carless argues that the difficulty in bringing a title across all platforms, both for technological and business reasons.Other than some retro titles (e.g. Joust), a very small number of downloadable title are appearing on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is one of the few exceptions, and Capcom's Christian Svensson said it required "considerable coordination" to get the titles on both consoles, which indicates to us that less established independent houses would have insurmountable difficulty.Carless notes that Sony's collection, retro games aside, are predominantly first party (though we should note that flOw went to Sony because they actively sought out the independent title). Nintendo has always talked about bringing original games to the Wii, and there have been murmurings of a Game Channel, but so far all the only tangible indication of a non-Virtual Console title is Impossible Mission.Carless' analogy to the film industry (three separate formats for theatre chains), though admittedly ham-fisted, does not account for industry history. It may be unfair to the independent developer, but there hasn't been a time when gaming was controlled by a single format. Sure, development teams are now much larger and require a bigger budget, but that hasn't stopped smaller teams from succeeding with Geometry Wars, Ragdoll Kung-Fu, and Alien Hominid (pictured). The state of indie games isn't ideal, but it seems to be getting better. We say keep on fighting, Simon.
LittleBigPlanet developer on dealing with publishers
When gaming journalists violently collided in the hallways of San Francisco's Moscone center, a common topic of conversation, besides their universally poor navigational skills, was the PlayStation 3's physics-driven platformer, LittleBigPlanet. The game quickly became somewhat of a critical darling after its unveiling, prompting us to attend a presentation by Media Molecule, the company behind it and Rag Doll Kung Fu. A GDC session held on Wednesday was presented by Mark Healey and Alex Evans who both spoke very candidly about their company's origins and their approach to dealing with publishers (the "bad guy" as far as many developers at GDC are concerned)."We're jumping into the abyss with rockets strapped on our back," said Evans in reference to Media Molecule's enthusiastic approach to game development. Part of this attitude reflects in their relationship with publishers, who Healy insisted are best dealt with by being as upfront and communicative as possible. "Everybody has good ideas," added Evans, but the trick is communicating these ideas. Giving the publisher as much information as you can is key in gaining publisher backing, with visual and playable examples being particularly effective -- Evans called it "the power of prototyping."A video of a LittleBigPlanet prototype was shown during the session, depicting a brightly colored and two-dimensional character waving his arms about, grabbing onto objects and striding up stairs in a decidedly awkward manner. Despite its early state, the physics technology and the control method immediately shone through, a fact which ultimately played a large role in Sony's eagerness to pluck the game up. It seems a similar approach would be just as effective on gamers -- forget the feature bullet-points and dry press releases. Just show us why your game is fun!
Rag Doll team enlisted for PS3 exclusive
Mark Healey's Media Molecule has inked a deal with SCEE to develop an exclusive title for PlayStation 3. Having yet to release a game since cutting ties with Lionhead, the small, 20-plus-sized team is hungry to prove themselves.While neither Sony or Media Molecule is yet prepared to speak publicly about the concept behind this new title, Mark Healy was quick to tout his small team's abilities, boasting, "[we] can deliver a world class, triple A, next generation product." If successful, Media Molecule could blaze the trail for a new generation of small development teams that provide innovative "next-gen" content on a cost effective scale ... while multimillion-dollar uber-studios blow loads of dough on those spiffy sequels and genre clones.
Media Molecule: Rag Doll Kung Fu creator's new studio
Here's the newest installment in the ongoing adventures of Mark Healey, the ex-Lionhead programmer who created Rag Doll Kung Fu. After cutting loose from Lionhead -- which, let's not forget, has since been acquired by Microsoft -- Mark reportedly started to pursue "other projects".He's now founded a new studio, Media Molecule, which includes other ex-Lionhead staff. For the next part of this ongoing soap opera, stay tuned -- the team are "mega busy" at the moment, and we're looking forward to what comes out of this new indie developer.
